** update ** This finally was reported on FoxNews Feb 7, 10. 2 Street Preachers Shot to Death in Florida
Two Christians Murdered for Witnessing in Boynton Beach
Why the National Media Blackout?
Contact: Dr. Gary Cass, Christian Anti-Defamation Commission, 866-508-2232, 954-551-9770
VISTA, Calif., Feb. 5 /Christian Newswire/ -- "Anti-Christian hostility is getting increasingly deadly as this week's tragic events demonstrate," said Dr. Gary Cass of the Christian Anti-Defamation Commission. "The increasing demonization of Christians in our culture makes some feel its open season on Christians."
According to the Boynton Beach police, simply sharing the word of God on the street is what brought two ministers to the man who killed them. Tite Sufra, 24, and Stephen Ocean, 23, were shot and killed Saturday night after meeting Jeriah Woody, 18. They witnessed to Woody for fifteen minutes when he got a phone call and told the preachers he 'had to go.' As they walked away, Woody suddenly started walking back toward them. Sufra walked up to greet him and was killed with a shot gun blast at point blank range. When Ocean ran, he was shot in the back. After he fell, Woody shot him in the head execution style. Woody was arrested Wednesday and is charged with two counts of first-degree murder.
"As of today, there are no national news organizations reporting this vicious murder of two innocent Christian men. Why?" Cass said, "I'll ask this: If two Muslims, or two feminists or two homosexuals were murdered, wouldn't the media be all over it? These were two fine young black Christian men shot by another black man for their Christian faith, yet the media does not seem to care."
Cass continued: "It is an ominous sign of our times that Christians are being shot on the streets and in our churches. Last year Jim Pullion was killed while holding pro-life signs in front of his granddaughter's Owasso Michigan high school. Rev. Fred Winters was murdered while preaching in his pulpit in Maryville, Illinois. Increasingly we see Christian ministers threatened and churches terrorized and vandalized for their stand on marriage. Now when Christians gather for worship they must have armed security. Anti-Christian defamation and bigotry has helped to create this violent climate and it must stop."
About the Christian Anti-Defamation Commission - The Christian Anti-Defamation Commission (CADC) is a national, not-for-profit 501(c) (3) Education Corporation whose purpose it is to champion Christian religious liberty, domestically and internationally, by standing against anti-Christian defamation, bigotry, and discrimination.
Showing posts with label America. Show all posts
Showing posts with label America. Show all posts
Sunday, February 07, 2010
Wednesday, November 11, 2009
Reminding Myself When I Am Frustrated....
This week I have been reminded again that we do not live in America, that we live in a different country, a different culture. You would think that would just be obvious, wouldn't you? But sometimes it's not.
We have become 'comfortable' here. As Americans it is fairly easy to be comfortable here.
We don't have to deal with the government in the same way as our friends do. Our American passports still grant us freedom here that our Ukrainian friends do not have. We only touch this at points here and there and it drives us crazy when we do. An example: when we get our registrations renewed. I've written about the frustration involved in that on more than one occasion.
I seldom think about the fact that experiences such as that particular one make up the daily grind for our Ukrainian friends. An example for them: Getting their pension figured out and finally received - and then having to go and actually get it instead of it being automatically transfered into their checking account each month(checking account? what's that? people pay cash here!), unless that has recently begun to happen for some - I know my tutor must stand in line at her post office to get hers, along with all the other people paying bills and/or actually buying stamps/envelopes. In fact, my tutor had to fight to get her pension at all! All while still working her full time job and tutoring students in her "free" time. Hours and hours and hours of standing in line at various government offices, getting this paper signed and that paper signed and finding she needs a new paper here or there, and going back to her boss and fighting for a higher amount instead of the measly amount they wanted her to get (she and her boss do not get along. In fact, this boss has publically castigated her and others in tirades that have left her literally shaking and in tears by the time she gets to our lesson. The boss does this publically and it is for the express purpose of humiliating her and the others. Humiliation being a form of control over another. Oh, this is not the only example I could give - I've heard other stories the same and even worse!) Fortunately, my tutor won her appeal - eventually, after months of working at it - and got the higher pension. But now she must keep on working for several more months to continue to get that higher pension. And believe me - it is not very high, in fact it is disgracefully low considering how many years she has worked and what it costs to live.
I forget these things. That is just one example. Living here as an American with enough money to pay for my needs, I forget that one of the young families we know lives on $60 per month and in a flat which needs a lot of repair. Several of the young families we know are in situations like this - some are deep in debt, others are barely hanging on without going deeply into debt. Another older man lost his flat in a scheme and has been fighting to get "justice" ever since. I forget that several of the older women in our church are supporting other family members - family members who are ill, or who can't find work, or who are too lazy to go out and search, or who are too young to care for themselves, or who have been abandoned by their parents and so they as grandparents are caring for them (and other elderly members at the same time), or who have lost their job in a very unfair and immoral way and are 'too old' now to find another. If I can imagine a bad family situation, there is a chance one of the people I know and care for is actually living this situation day by day.
I look at the faces in the church, at prayer meeting, or those who sit around our table during the week. I think of those who eat and eat and eat when they are here - and I am aware that they are feasting on what to us is a normal meal. My heart breaks. I look at all of the things I have and I wonder if I cause my brothers and sisters to sin (envy, jealousy, greed, anger, etc) - books by the dozen, craft supplies by the box/bag, toys stored in my closet for visiting children or taking to the baby hospital when I went there regularly, food on my pantry shelf, soft white toilet paper in the toilet room, clothing in my shkaf that I never wear, my 4 pair of outside shoes and 2 pair of inside shoes, my washer and fridge (some of the people we know have neither) that save me oodles of time (one woman had never seen a regular manual can opener, but uses the very old fashioned kind that you jab over and over into the lid!), our two laptops - even this internet connection that I am using while writing this post. The paycheck that Mel recieves faithfully each month!!!! Enough money to hire a taxi home from the store if needed, instead having to go shopping every day and having to carry it home in bags, just to eat that day. Every single one of these is something that someone in our church does not have - some do not have several of these things. And our church is not poor! Our church is made up of average people here - some have more money, some have less, but most are just average people.
And somewhere in all of the lives these people actually live day by day, they must rest and have some relaxation and some down time and some time to read the Word and pray and fellowship with other Believers.
I am humbled.
When I get frustrated that no one wants to teach Sunday School, when certain people don't show up week after week for church, when only 2 or 3 come for prayer meeting (walking down dark streets through mud without flashlights to spend a couple hours sitting in a cold mostly dark room? Would I do that??) - I often get frustrated and a bit depressed about it and wonder why in the world we are even here and why isn't "it" better, and so forth and so on. I need a reminder of where I am at and of who the people really are and how they really live. I wonder how I look to them - my life is so incredibly easy and luxurious compared to theirs.
And I need to remind myself that God knows all this. That these are things I need to take to Him in prayer. That sometimes modeling Christian love and care is shown by cooking a meal for someone and then giving them time to just sit around the table and talk and laugh and relax in a safe place for a couple hours.
I am going back to America in just a few days. I am going back to my own culture, to my own home church. When I get there it is going to be a completely different world. People will be very busy - yes. People will have many worries - yes. I will be going back to a church culture that is way over 200 years old and well established and developed. Of course, people will have their own cultural reasons for not showing up at church or being involved in church things. People who are in church are going to ask us questions and expect certain answers and wonder why we can't give them the success stories that they want and expect to hear. Even those who have visited here, who have glimpsed a slice of life here, are not going to fully understand because they have not lived it day after day after day after day with no hope of going back to another home/culture, but have only seen a very sanitized version of reality (except for those adopting - they have experienced the reality of what life is truly like for people here EVERY DAY!).
It is difficult to live in two worlds.
I want Ukraine to be like America. I want the church here to be like my church in the States. I want other things here to be like they were at home. That is how I feel while I am here. But that is not right! This is Ukraine, not America!
While I am in the States I know from experience that I am going to be very uncomfortable with certain things - wasted food, all of the stuff available in the massive big box stores, and more. I will sit in church and relish it, enjoy it, love it and wonder about the private lives of the people I see and the reality of it all. It will take some time to readjust. I will be uncomfortable now. I will be frustrated over things that I never saw before, that never mattered to me before. I will see the reality that some of what I knew to be "correct" was only cultural all along and not Biblical.
Yes, it is difficult to live in two worlds at once - especially when neither one of them is perfect.
I think that this is another way in which God is changing me to long for heaven more and more, and to love this earth and world less and less.
I wish it was easier.
We have become 'comfortable' here. As Americans it is fairly easy to be comfortable here.
We don't have to deal with the government in the same way as our friends do. Our American passports still grant us freedom here that our Ukrainian friends do not have. We only touch this at points here and there and it drives us crazy when we do. An example: when we get our registrations renewed. I've written about the frustration involved in that on more than one occasion.
I seldom think about the fact that experiences such as that particular one make up the daily grind for our Ukrainian friends. An example for them: Getting their pension figured out and finally received - and then having to go and actually get it instead of it being automatically transfered into their checking account each month(checking account? what's that? people pay cash here!), unless that has recently begun to happen for some - I know my tutor must stand in line at her post office to get hers, along with all the other people paying bills and/or actually buying stamps/envelopes. In fact, my tutor had to fight to get her pension at all! All while still working her full time job and tutoring students in her "free" time. Hours and hours and hours of standing in line at various government offices, getting this paper signed and that paper signed and finding she needs a new paper here or there, and going back to her boss and fighting for a higher amount instead of the measly amount they wanted her to get (she and her boss do not get along. In fact, this boss has publically castigated her and others in tirades that have left her literally shaking and in tears by the time she gets to our lesson. The boss does this publically and it is for the express purpose of humiliating her and the others. Humiliation being a form of control over another. Oh, this is not the only example I could give - I've heard other stories the same and even worse!) Fortunately, my tutor won her appeal - eventually, after months of working at it - and got the higher pension. But now she must keep on working for several more months to continue to get that higher pension. And believe me - it is not very high, in fact it is disgracefully low considering how many years she has worked and what it costs to live.
I forget these things. That is just one example. Living here as an American with enough money to pay for my needs, I forget that one of the young families we know lives on $60 per month and in a flat which needs a lot of repair. Several of the young families we know are in situations like this - some are deep in debt, others are barely hanging on without going deeply into debt. Another older man lost his flat in a scheme and has been fighting to get "justice" ever since. I forget that several of the older women in our church are supporting other family members - family members who are ill, or who can't find work, or who are too lazy to go out and search, or who are too young to care for themselves, or who have been abandoned by their parents and so they as grandparents are caring for them (and other elderly members at the same time), or who have lost their job in a very unfair and immoral way and are 'too old' now to find another. If I can imagine a bad family situation, there is a chance one of the people I know and care for is actually living this situation day by day.
I look at the faces in the church, at prayer meeting, or those who sit around our table during the week. I think of those who eat and eat and eat when they are here - and I am aware that they are feasting on what to us is a normal meal. My heart breaks. I look at all of the things I have and I wonder if I cause my brothers and sisters to sin (envy, jealousy, greed, anger, etc) - books by the dozen, craft supplies by the box/bag, toys stored in my closet for visiting children or taking to the baby hospital when I went there regularly, food on my pantry shelf, soft white toilet paper in the toilet room, clothing in my shkaf that I never wear, my 4 pair of outside shoes and 2 pair of inside shoes, my washer and fridge (some of the people we know have neither) that save me oodles of time (one woman had never seen a regular manual can opener, but uses the very old fashioned kind that you jab over and over into the lid!), our two laptops - even this internet connection that I am using while writing this post. The paycheck that Mel recieves faithfully each month!!!! Enough money to hire a taxi home from the store if needed, instead having to go shopping every day and having to carry it home in bags, just to eat that day. Every single one of these is something that someone in our church does not have - some do not have several of these things. And our church is not poor! Our church is made up of average people here - some have more money, some have less, but most are just average people.
And somewhere in all of the lives these people actually live day by day, they must rest and have some relaxation and some down time and some time to read the Word and pray and fellowship with other Believers.
I am humbled.
When I get frustrated that no one wants to teach Sunday School, when certain people don't show up week after week for church, when only 2 or 3 come for prayer meeting (walking down dark streets through mud without flashlights to spend a couple hours sitting in a cold mostly dark room? Would I do that??) - I often get frustrated and a bit depressed about it and wonder why in the world we are even here and why isn't "it" better, and so forth and so on. I need a reminder of where I am at and of who the people really are and how they really live. I wonder how I look to them - my life is so incredibly easy and luxurious compared to theirs.
And I need to remind myself that God knows all this. That these are things I need to take to Him in prayer. That sometimes modeling Christian love and care is shown by cooking a meal for someone and then giving them time to just sit around the table and talk and laugh and relax in a safe place for a couple hours.
I am going back to America in just a few days. I am going back to my own culture, to my own home church. When I get there it is going to be a completely different world. People will be very busy - yes. People will have many worries - yes. I will be going back to a church culture that is way over 200 years old and well established and developed. Of course, people will have their own cultural reasons for not showing up at church or being involved in church things. People who are in church are going to ask us questions and expect certain answers and wonder why we can't give them the success stories that they want and expect to hear. Even those who have visited here, who have glimpsed a slice of life here, are not going to fully understand because they have not lived it day after day after day after day with no hope of going back to another home/culture, but have only seen a very sanitized version of reality (except for those adopting - they have experienced the reality of what life is truly like for people here EVERY DAY!).
It is difficult to live in two worlds.
I want Ukraine to be like America. I want the church here to be like my church in the States. I want other things here to be like they were at home. That is how I feel while I am here. But that is not right! This is Ukraine, not America!
While I am in the States I know from experience that I am going to be very uncomfortable with certain things - wasted food, all of the stuff available in the massive big box stores, and more. I will sit in church and relish it, enjoy it, love it and wonder about the private lives of the people I see and the reality of it all. It will take some time to readjust. I will be uncomfortable now. I will be frustrated over things that I never saw before, that never mattered to me before. I will see the reality that some of what I knew to be "correct" was only cultural all along and not Biblical.
Yes, it is difficult to live in two worlds at once - especially when neither one of them is perfect.
I think that this is another way in which God is changing me to long for heaven more and more, and to love this earth and world less and less.
I wish it was easier.
Thursday, January 08, 2009
It Needs Tweeking - Get Involved!
If you have ever or plan to ever sell items that you make (craft show, etsy shop, etc.) you really need to check this out. More government intrusion, although the idea behind the law is quite good from what I've skimmed through.
Think: China sending poisonous toys to be sold to American children this past year - something does need to be done. And with that thought - China also sells toys in Ukraine - have they been tested for lead and other problems? What about baby formula? Was it sold here, too? I don't know the answers to those questions.
This law affects hundreds of thousands of innocent Americans who sell handmade items - knitted objects, craft fairs, second-hand stores, Christmas items - the list is endless.
I encourage you to read up on this law. Contact your congressman. Get involved. Americans are losing their liberties.
Read about it: Information on the Consumer Product Safety Act (CSPIA)
http://liletsyshop.blogspot.com/2008/12/why-you-should-care-about-cpsia.html
Cool Mom Picks, We Find It, You Flaunt It Overview: We're all for strengthening the safety standards of mass-produced toys, clothes, and accessories made in China, and banning toxins like phthalates and lead. But this year, congress passed the ill-conceived Consumer Products Safety Improvement Act, a law which goes into effect in two months and will absolutely decimate the small toy manufacturers, independent artisans, and crafters who have already earned the public trust. The very same ones that we often feature here and in our yearly special edition gift guides.
With this act going into effect February 10 2009 so many people we love will be affected: Moms who sew beautiful handmade waldorf dolls out of home, artists who have spent decades hand-carving trucks and cars out of natural woods, that guy at the craft show who sold you the cute handmade puzzle--even larger US companies who employ local workers and have not once had any sort of safety issue will no longer be able to sell their goods. Not without investing tens of thousands of dollars into third-party testing and labeling, just to prove that toys that never had a single toxic chemical in them still don't have a single toxic chemical in them.
Find your congressman: Congressman
Monday, September 11, 2006
Remembering 9/11 and 9/12
It was early in the summer of 2001 that we learned our oldest son, Peter, was having severe problems with his blood pressure. Our doctor decided that although he was overweight and that could be causing some of the problem, at the ripe old age of 23 he should not be having these kinds of problems with it. So Dr. Fletcher scheduled several tests and decided that Peter needed to see a specialist. Finally it was determined that Peter had a large cyst growing inside his abdomen that was putting pressure on blood vessels and organs and it needed to be removed. Surgery was scheduled for September 12, 2001.
September 11, 2001 started out as a regular day for us, just like it did for most of the six plus billion people on earth. Over here on our side of the world the day continued as planned. I don’t even remember the day, it was so uneventful. Lyudmilla came at 4:00 for my Russian lesson and I spent two hours struggling through verbs and verbs of motion – again. Mel sat in the office, writing on the computer, then playing a game while he waited for my lesson to finish so we could begin dinner. Lyudmilla stood and began gathering her books and glasses and putting everything away in her carry-all bag and purse.
The phone rang.
I heard Mel say: “Andrei! How are you, brother?” I knew Andrei was out of the country – in fact, he was in Uzbekistan at a conference. I wondered if he had returned earlier than planned. Mel was silent for a moment and then responded, “No, the television is off. Cindie is in her Russian lesson. --- Oh, hold on – Cindie – turn on the tv, Andrei is calling from Uzbekistan and says something terrible is happening in America!”
I quickly went around Lyudmilla to the tv and switched it on. And the world stopped.
Even now as I type these words, the tears come into my eyes, it is hard to catch my breath and I start to cry.
I remember putting my hand across my mouth as I watched the replay of the first plane crash into the building. We were watching a CNN feed with Ukrainian voice over. We could read the English at the bottom but understood very little of what was happening. I asked Lyudmilla to translate and she tried. It was all very confusing. Something about the Japanese Red Army had attacked the United States. That was the thing that stood out to her. Suddenly a second plane and then within moments the World Trade Center began to fall.
I honestly thought I was going to have a heart attack. My chest hurt, it was hard to breath. I looked at Lyudmilla and said: “They don’t know what they have done. They don’t know what they have done! They have woken the Sleeping Giant – and they don’t know what they have done.”
I was sobbing. Mel, Lyudmilla and I – we three standing together in our livingroom watching September 11 unfold via televised broadcast. To this day, I don’t know what the timeline was – were we watching some of it live, or was it all video repeat? I’ve never taken the time to figure out the time difference and make a time line.
Lyudmilla decided to leave and we quietly let her out the door. Melinda was in the States but our short-term teammate needed to know. I tried calling Lisa – I called and called. She had a strange phone system – she and her landlady shared the phone, so every time I called her landlady answered first. Finally, I asked the landlady – “Please go upstairs and see if Lisa is home – something terrible is happening in America.” At that point I couldn’t get out enough Russian to try and explain. I asked her to tell Lisa to turn on her tv. Lisa wasn’t home, but awhile later she called and asked what was up, her landlady had stopped her as she came in and said I’d called all upset. I told her – turn on your tv.
After watching the initial reports on tv and not understanding at all what was happening (why would Japan be attacking the US???), Mel immediately got on the internet and started downloading email. We are signed up to receive CNN news alerts and they started coming in. Dozens of them. The news just kept getting worse. Reports of what happened at the Pentagon. Later, reports about the plane in Pennsylvania. On television the Ukrainian voice over finally stopped – they couldn’t keep up. I was so thankful! I kept thinking – “just shut up and let me listen to the English!” We were able to listen to CNN then for the first time in English.
Sometime later that night we heard President Bush address the nation. I thought to myself as I watched him – this is the first time I have heard my president’s voice! I am living in 2001 with all of our instant communications and I have never heard his voice before (everything is voiced over here, including all news report clips from other countries).
During the whole evening I wondered about Peter. He was supposed to have surgery the next day. We didn’t know if there would be more attacks, or where they might occur. Colorado Springs is a main target due to NORAD, the Air Force Academy, Falcon Air Station, Fort Carson and other military installations in the area. Was my family safe? We couldn’t get through to the States on the phone lines. So email became our connection home. He needed the surgery as soon as possible – would it happen?
We share our phone line with our neighbors and when we are on the phone, they cannot use theirs, it’s dead. When they are on theirs, we cannot use ours. They have complained to us several times that we are on the phone too much. They’ve come and knocked on our door at midnight and asked us to get off the internet so they can receive a call from Far East Russia. So, I kept expecting someone to come and knock on our door – but no one did. We were on the phone for hours, downloading email, making phone calls to people here, downloading more email. (Thank you, neighbors, for understanding our need!)
Our first concern after the safety of our family was: money. How much money did we have in the house. Not much. Would the banking system be ok the following day, would we be able to use a bankomat machine (ATM) and pull several hundred dollars? What was going to happen to the exchange rate?
Then we realized that all planes around the world had been grounded. If Peter did have his surgery the next day and something happened and we needed to get home right away – we couldn’t. No matter how much money we had, no matter what we did – we could not go home. That was one of the most frightening moments I’ve ever had. At that point, we had no idea if we would ever be able to go home. Rumors and more rumors. People were calling us now, when they could get through, asking us if any of our family was in the World Trade Center, giving us their condolences over what was happening in America.
So many things were happening, so many thoughts going through my mind.
- Peter’s surgery
- Can we get home again, and when
- Our Ukrainian friends understood more than we will ever know – their country has been attacked many times throughout history, plus they had just recently gone through the collapse of their government, disintegration as a major world power and the reestablishment of their country as an individual, independent country.
- Would the terrorists attack again in the States
- Would they begin attacking Americans outside the US more than before
- Would we have enough money available to buy food, etc. for as long as it took for events to work out
The next day we immediately went to the local bankomat at a nearby bus stop. Several people on the street stared at us, some of the old women sitting at their tables selling sunflower seeds and cigarettes leaned over toward each other, and started whispering together, watching us the whole time. The bankomat worked, we got out dollars and then went to find an exchange booth. The exchange rate had changed, not for the better for us, so we exchanged it all in anticipation that the exchange rate would get worse. Fortunately, the Ukrainian government immediately put in effect a freeze on the exchange rate and it could not go up or down until world events had stabilized again. We still had some supplies left from the Y2K scare possibilities – stored water for the toilet, some canned goods that we had been using up, etc. But when we heard the government had already taken these emergency steps we were no longer concerned about the immediate money issues.
We still did not know if Peter would have his surgery. Somehow during the day we found out that yes, it was still going to happen. Life for me was like living in that proverbial “limbo land.” Everything stopped inside, nothing was important except what was happening on the television and what was happening with my son. Later that evening as I sat crying again, Mel told me – NO MORE EMAIL. NO MORE TELEVISION. He went over to the tv, switched it to video and popped in my favorite movie – You’ve Got Mail. I watched it, headachy from crying, eyes scratchy and red, trying not to think or worry or even pray any more because my prayers had turned into worrying at God.
Mel was busy doing some things, I was watching tv. And suddenly, there in the middle of the movie was something I had never seen before. It never made any difference to me before. But there was the Tom Hanks character, his father and grandfather all together in their office in one of the top floors of one of the Towers. I told Mel – I wonder how many times this is going to happen? A movie, a book, someone’s personal photos we’ll be looking at – and there will be a reminder of This Day.
I stayed up – I could not sleep. I waited and waited for a phone call from home. I sat in the dark, praying for Peter, praying for my country, praying for Mel and me and that I would trust God in this situation. Finally, sometime around 4 am or later, the phone rang. Mom had waited until they got home from the hospital to call. Peter’s surgery went well. The removed the cyst, he was expected to make a full recovery (and he did, although he had a bad time with a staph infection in the incision later). She explained to me that the doctor was shocked at the size of the cyst, it was much larger than they had expected. When he described it, he held out his hands and showed my parents and two other kids a shape about the size between a soccer ball and a basketball. After talking for a few minutes I was able to go to bed and finally sleep.
We went home at the end of October, as originally planned, for our first Home Ministry Assignment. We flew into Atlanta. What a shock to get off the plane and be met by soldiers with machine guns. In my country. In my America – the land of the free and the home of the brave, soldiers at the airports. Mel and I went through security and were told to step aside. A soldier came up to Mel, told him to pull his pant legs up above his boot tops, and stand spread eagle. I thought they were going to take his clothes off before it was over. I stood at the side watching and when the soldier was finished and had stepped aside, I walked up to him and said, “Thank you.” He looked at me with a surprised look on his face and then grinned.
America had changed. We had changed. Nothing will ever be the same. Here in Ukraine we heard words of sympathy, we heard words of “America deserved it for what she did in Kosovo.” Some of these attitudes we understood, some made no sense to us, like the Kosovo thing (NATO bombed Kosovo, not the US). I am more aware today that I am a stranger, I am a foreigner. I am more aware that something might happen in the States and it would be hard or impossible for us to return. I am left with feelings of insecurity that I never had before. I am more aware that America is not always correct politically – I see the States through ‘world eyes’ now. But I also know that we did not “deserve” what happened on 9/11. I know that no matter what the US does in foreign policy, most of the world will be unhappy about it. That’s the way things work. I am proud to be an American. I am thankful for my American passport. I would say, with thousands of others, “God bless America,” except that I also see the sin and moral decay that is happening in the States and know that there is really no reason why God should bless her. I say: “God have mercy on the United States.”
The Sleeping Giant is really awake now. I’m not sure what I think of that. In many ways it was much simpler to be the me I was before I lived outside of the US.
God, please have mercy on the United States. I have no other words – Have Mercy on us.
September 11, 2001 started out as a regular day for us, just like it did for most of the six plus billion people on earth. Over here on our side of the world the day continued as planned. I don’t even remember the day, it was so uneventful. Lyudmilla came at 4:00 for my Russian lesson and I spent two hours struggling through verbs and verbs of motion – again. Mel sat in the office, writing on the computer, then playing a game while he waited for my lesson to finish so we could begin dinner. Lyudmilla stood and began gathering her books and glasses and putting everything away in her carry-all bag and purse.
The phone rang.
I heard Mel say: “Andrei! How are you, brother?” I knew Andrei was out of the country – in fact, he was in Uzbekistan at a conference. I wondered if he had returned earlier than planned. Mel was silent for a moment and then responded, “No, the television is off. Cindie is in her Russian lesson. --- Oh, hold on – Cindie – turn on the tv, Andrei is calling from Uzbekistan and says something terrible is happening in America!”
I quickly went around Lyudmilla to the tv and switched it on. And the world stopped.
Even now as I type these words, the tears come into my eyes, it is hard to catch my breath and I start to cry.
I remember putting my hand across my mouth as I watched the replay of the first plane crash into the building. We were watching a CNN feed with Ukrainian voice over. We could read the English at the bottom but understood very little of what was happening. I asked Lyudmilla to translate and she tried. It was all very confusing. Something about the Japanese Red Army had attacked the United States. That was the thing that stood out to her. Suddenly a second plane and then within moments the World Trade Center began to fall.
I honestly thought I was going to have a heart attack. My chest hurt, it was hard to breath. I looked at Lyudmilla and said: “They don’t know what they have done. They don’t know what they have done! They have woken the Sleeping Giant – and they don’t know what they have done.”
I was sobbing. Mel, Lyudmilla and I – we three standing together in our livingroom watching September 11 unfold via televised broadcast. To this day, I don’t know what the timeline was – were we watching some of it live, or was it all video repeat? I’ve never taken the time to figure out the time difference and make a time line.
Lyudmilla decided to leave and we quietly let her out the door. Melinda was in the States but our short-term teammate needed to know. I tried calling Lisa – I called and called. She had a strange phone system – she and her landlady shared the phone, so every time I called her landlady answered first. Finally, I asked the landlady – “Please go upstairs and see if Lisa is home – something terrible is happening in America.” At that point I couldn’t get out enough Russian to try and explain. I asked her to tell Lisa to turn on her tv. Lisa wasn’t home, but awhile later she called and asked what was up, her landlady had stopped her as she came in and said I’d called all upset. I told her – turn on your tv.
After watching the initial reports on tv and not understanding at all what was happening (why would Japan be attacking the US???), Mel immediately got on the internet and started downloading email. We are signed up to receive CNN news alerts and they started coming in. Dozens of them. The news just kept getting worse. Reports of what happened at the Pentagon. Later, reports about the plane in Pennsylvania. On television the Ukrainian voice over finally stopped – they couldn’t keep up. I was so thankful! I kept thinking – “just shut up and let me listen to the English!” We were able to listen to CNN then for the first time in English.
Sometime later that night we heard President Bush address the nation. I thought to myself as I watched him – this is the first time I have heard my president’s voice! I am living in 2001 with all of our instant communications and I have never heard his voice before (everything is voiced over here, including all news report clips from other countries).
During the whole evening I wondered about Peter. He was supposed to have surgery the next day. We didn’t know if there would be more attacks, or where they might occur. Colorado Springs is a main target due to NORAD, the Air Force Academy, Falcon Air Station, Fort Carson and other military installations in the area. Was my family safe? We couldn’t get through to the States on the phone lines. So email became our connection home. He needed the surgery as soon as possible – would it happen?
We share our phone line with our neighbors and when we are on the phone, they cannot use theirs, it’s dead. When they are on theirs, we cannot use ours. They have complained to us several times that we are on the phone too much. They’ve come and knocked on our door at midnight and asked us to get off the internet so they can receive a call from Far East Russia. So, I kept expecting someone to come and knock on our door – but no one did. We were on the phone for hours, downloading email, making phone calls to people here, downloading more email. (Thank you, neighbors, for understanding our need!)
Our first concern after the safety of our family was: money. How much money did we have in the house. Not much. Would the banking system be ok the following day, would we be able to use a bankomat machine (ATM) and pull several hundred dollars? What was going to happen to the exchange rate?
Then we realized that all planes around the world had been grounded. If Peter did have his surgery the next day and something happened and we needed to get home right away – we couldn’t. No matter how much money we had, no matter what we did – we could not go home. That was one of the most frightening moments I’ve ever had. At that point, we had no idea if we would ever be able to go home. Rumors and more rumors. People were calling us now, when they could get through, asking us if any of our family was in the World Trade Center, giving us their condolences over what was happening in America.
So many things were happening, so many thoughts going through my mind.
- Peter’s surgery
- Can we get home again, and when
- Our Ukrainian friends understood more than we will ever know – their country has been attacked many times throughout history, plus they had just recently gone through the collapse of their government, disintegration as a major world power and the reestablishment of their country as an individual, independent country.
- Would the terrorists attack again in the States
- Would they begin attacking Americans outside the US more than before
- Would we have enough money available to buy food, etc. for as long as it took for events to work out
The next day we immediately went to the local bankomat at a nearby bus stop. Several people on the street stared at us, some of the old women sitting at their tables selling sunflower seeds and cigarettes leaned over toward each other, and started whispering together, watching us the whole time. The bankomat worked, we got out dollars and then went to find an exchange booth. The exchange rate had changed, not for the better for us, so we exchanged it all in anticipation that the exchange rate would get worse. Fortunately, the Ukrainian government immediately put in effect a freeze on the exchange rate and it could not go up or down until world events had stabilized again. We still had some supplies left from the Y2K scare possibilities – stored water for the toilet, some canned goods that we had been using up, etc. But when we heard the government had already taken these emergency steps we were no longer concerned about the immediate money issues.
We still did not know if Peter would have his surgery. Somehow during the day we found out that yes, it was still going to happen. Life for me was like living in that proverbial “limbo land.” Everything stopped inside, nothing was important except what was happening on the television and what was happening with my son. Later that evening as I sat crying again, Mel told me – NO MORE EMAIL. NO MORE TELEVISION. He went over to the tv, switched it to video and popped in my favorite movie – You’ve Got Mail. I watched it, headachy from crying, eyes scratchy and red, trying not to think or worry or even pray any more because my prayers had turned into worrying at God.
Mel was busy doing some things, I was watching tv. And suddenly, there in the middle of the movie was something I had never seen before. It never made any difference to me before. But there was the Tom Hanks character, his father and grandfather all together in their office in one of the top floors of one of the Towers. I told Mel – I wonder how many times this is going to happen? A movie, a book, someone’s personal photos we’ll be looking at – and there will be a reminder of This Day.
I stayed up – I could not sleep. I waited and waited for a phone call from home. I sat in the dark, praying for Peter, praying for my country, praying for Mel and me and that I would trust God in this situation. Finally, sometime around 4 am or later, the phone rang. Mom had waited until they got home from the hospital to call. Peter’s surgery went well. The removed the cyst, he was expected to make a full recovery (and he did, although he had a bad time with a staph infection in the incision later). She explained to me that the doctor was shocked at the size of the cyst, it was much larger than they had expected. When he described it, he held out his hands and showed my parents and two other kids a shape about the size between a soccer ball and a basketball. After talking for a few minutes I was able to go to bed and finally sleep.
We went home at the end of October, as originally planned, for our first Home Ministry Assignment. We flew into Atlanta. What a shock to get off the plane and be met by soldiers with machine guns. In my country. In my America – the land of the free and the home of the brave, soldiers at the airports. Mel and I went through security and were told to step aside. A soldier came up to Mel, told him to pull his pant legs up above his boot tops, and stand spread eagle. I thought they were going to take his clothes off before it was over. I stood at the side watching and when the soldier was finished and had stepped aside, I walked up to him and said, “Thank you.” He looked at me with a surprised look on his face and then grinned.
America had changed. We had changed. Nothing will ever be the same. Here in Ukraine we heard words of sympathy, we heard words of “America deserved it for what she did in Kosovo.” Some of these attitudes we understood, some made no sense to us, like the Kosovo thing (NATO bombed Kosovo, not the US). I am more aware today that I am a stranger, I am a foreigner. I am more aware that something might happen in the States and it would be hard or impossible for us to return. I am left with feelings of insecurity that I never had before. I am more aware that America is not always correct politically – I see the States through ‘world eyes’ now. But I also know that we did not “deserve” what happened on 9/11. I know that no matter what the US does in foreign policy, most of the world will be unhappy about it. That’s the way things work. I am proud to be an American. I am thankful for my American passport. I would say, with thousands of others, “God bless America,” except that I also see the sin and moral decay that is happening in the States and know that there is really no reason why God should bless her. I say: “God have mercy on the United States.”
The Sleeping Giant is really awake now. I’m not sure what I think of that. In many ways it was much simpler to be the me I was before I lived outside of the US.
God, please have mercy on the United States. I have no other words – Have Mercy on us.
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